The Testing of God’s Sons by Gregory S. Smith is primarily an exploration of the literary theme of “testing”, a theme that is especially important in Genesis but that, Smith also argues, is a unifying theme in the entire Pentateuch and even the entire Christian Bible. Additionally, to support his case, he engages in a limited semantic field analysis of common Hebrew terms that communicate the idea of testing. He argues that underlying the use of these terms is a metallurgical metaphor, and Smith finds that one particular term that is important to his literary analysis of the theme of testing in the Bible, Hebrew bāḥan, is connected to the idea of a “touchstone”, meaning the purpose of the testing is authentication (more than “refining” or “revealing”). Read the rest of this entry »

A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew is a deductive introductory Hebrew grammar by Duane Garrett and Jason DeRouchie. It is divided into 41 chapters and 8 appendices. Accompanying the book is a CD containing a variety of teaching aids including audio files to assist in the learning of the pronunciation of the alphabet and vocabulary. There is also a workbook available to accompany the grammar, and Garrett has put together a blog to accompany the grammar, as well (see http://hebrewgrammar.sbts.edu/). The grammar is designed to be usable in several different ways for a two semester Biblical Hebrew course. What this means is that there are built into the organization of the material four potential stopping points, depending on the goals of a given Hebrew course. Read the rest of this entry »

BibleWorks is a rather visible product on the market of biblical softwares. The 9th version, reviewed here, offers a number of added elements, both in content and to the interface. With respect to the latter, among other features: a fourth column, a verse tab displaying critical notes or a critical apparatus for the verse under the mouse, a tagging tool for Greek NT morphology; I would also mention the set of transcription tools and search tools, which supports the new text-critical element of this software. With respect to content, BibleWorks 9 offers several additional modern Bible versions, the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine text with morphology, the Loeb Classical Edition versification for Josephus, the Moody Atlas of the Bible, and others.

For the present reviewer, the most important additions are the New Testament critical apparatus produced by the CNTTS (Center for New Testament Textual Studies) and the (first) results of the BibleWorks Manuscript Project; together, they open a whole new venue for the utilisation of this product.

In recent years, there has been a slow but steady movement toward adapting modern linguistic theory to the study of biblical languages, particularly within lexical semantics – the study of word meaning. Shead’s Radical Frame Semantics represents yet another step forward in this general trend, and a strong one at that.

In this volume, Shead has clearly grasped the task at hand – to articulate a responsible method for handling the meaning of words in an ancient language – and has demonstrated convincingly that there is much to be gained from applying such a method.

There was little doubt that Joosten’s new volume, The Verbal System of Biblical Hebrew, would be thorough, well-researched, well-reasoned and well-positioned to become a standard for future scholarship. Read the rest of this entry »

Ellen van Wolde’s recent volume, Reframing Biblical Studies, is an ambitious attempt to change the course of the whole of biblical scholarship. Biblical scholarship, she maintains, has become too narrow, too specialized, and does not have much ability to incorporate insights from other disciplines. Those who do attempt a crossover or integration often find themselves fumbling in the dark. Van Wolde, however, suggests a way forward, a light in a dark place – the study of cognition. It is by appeal to the human mind that we can form meaningful bridges between normally separated disciplines. Read the rest of this entry »

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Biblical and Early Christian Studies

2019.9.9 | Jennifer Knust and Tommy Wasserman. To Cast the First Stone: The Transmission of a Gospel Story. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. Review by Garrick V. Allen, Dublin City University. This meticulously researched and deeply engaging volume on the pericopeadulterae(PA) is a prime example of the value of collaborative research in the humanities, encompassing […]

2019.4.5 | Edward Lipiński. A History of the Kingdom of Israel. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 275. Leuven: Peeters, 2018. ISBN: 978-90-429-3655-3. pp. xii+209. Review by Kurtis Peters, University of British Columbia Histories of Israel have become commonplace. The topic of Israel’s history has always intrigued scholars and many have undertaken to reconstruct their own version of that history. […]

2019.1.2 | Rollston, Christopher, A. Enemies and Friends of the State: Ancient Prophecy in Context. University Park: Eisenbrauns, 2018. pp. X + 613. ISBN: 9781575067643. Reviewed by Kurtis Peters The biblical prophets and their historical personae have long fascinated readers of the Bible, scholars and non-scholars alike. They are dramatic; their words both condemn and offer […]

2018.12.13 | Göran Eidevall.Amos: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Yale Bible 24G. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. pp. xx + 292. ISBN: 978-0-300-17878-4. Reviewed by Kurtis Peters Göran Eidevall has contributed the new Amos volume in the expanding Anchor Yale Bible commentary series. This commentary is the successor to the original […]